That’s right, the starring role was initially offered to Mr. Perma-Grin himself, Tom Cruise. In a piece of casting that would require a fair bit of disbelief-suspension, Cruise reportedly signed-on to play the average Joe who finds himself caught in the crossfire when he is duped by a beautiful stranger.

However, you don’t get Hollywood’s biggest star on board without expecting to have to make a few tweaks, and sure enough, Cruise apparently had an issue or two with the script, as written by Gosford Park scribbler Julian Fellowes.

Not a man to be denied, Cruise requested Christopher McQuarrie be brought in to give the screenplay a bit of a re-write. Having worked with McQuarrie on Valkyrie, Cruise was clearly quite enamoured with the Oscar-winner, with The Tourist just one of a number of projects the pair were said to be working on.

However, whilst McQuarrie did indeed do some work on the script, it wasn’t to be for the dynamic duo, with Cruise confirmed to have left the project by the summer of 2009…